Catley: "It was definitely a wake-up call"

Matildas captain Steph Catley and Head Coach Tony Gustavsson said that it was a “wake-up call” after Australia’s 3-0 defeat to Germany in the opening match of Paris 2024™.

“It was definitely a wake-up call, that’s tournament football sometimes,” Catley expressed post-match, “but we’ve got two more games and we’ve got to turn it around quickly.”

Her assessment of the game was one where the team let themselves down with their inability to defend Germany’s set pieces.

“At times we were well on top, and we let two set pieces affect the game in a very negative way,” she outlined, referring to the first two goals of the game that came directly from corners.

“They’re [Germany] a great team. But I think we did it to ourselves in the end… it’s not to our standard and we know that.

“So we’ll go back and look at what we can improve, and we just need to be better for the next game and turn this tournament around.”

In terms of what can be improved, Catley emphasised the simple things.

“We created a fair bit, I think we had our chances,” she recounted. “The game was pretty transitional – they transitioned a lot, we did as well.

“It’s basic things we’ve got to clean up. I think we lost too many duels. They’re a physical team and we knew they were going to be, so I think we were just too much on the back foot.”

Gustavsson stressed to fans that they would learn from the game and take those lessons for the remainder of the tournament.

“The fact that they [the fans] set the alarm to get up at 3 am in the morning to support us is massive,” he began.

“I guess there’s a lot of disappointed fans out there. They might not think it was worth getting up. I promise you it’s worth it, because these players feel it and need it.

“What we need to do now is learn from this game, delete it as soon as possible, have two days for Zambia, and hopefully we can make more people back home proud at that game.”

Australia will be aiming to bounce back in their second match of Group B when they take on Zambia at the Stade de Nice, Nice at 3 am AEST on Monday 29 July 2024 (7pm Sunday 28 July local time).